


Will you Fake Date Me?

by mochegato



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: All The Tropes, F/M, Fake dating - kind of, Jason is a Dork, Jason is a dumbass, Jasonette, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:08:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26255413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mochegato/pseuds/mochegato
Summary: Jason decides to ask Marinette to pretend to date him... it does not go the way he thought it would.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd
Comments: 9
Kudos: 177





	Will you Fake Date Me?

“Explain this to me again,” Marinette said with slight exasperation as she stirred her coffee. She watched her friend, one of her best friends, run a hand through his hair looking slightly desperate and anxious. The fact that messing up his hair like that just made him even more attractive was utterly not fair. Wait, she was supposed to be annoyed not turned on. Stop Marinette, focus!

Jason sighed staring down at the coffee in front of him, “I need you to pretend to be my girlfriend for the upcoming Wayne gala. Bruce is forcing me go and I need some protection.”

“You need my protection?” she asked eyeing him suspiciously. He nodded, still looking intently at his coffee. “From?”

“Bruce, Alfred, attention seeking harpies looking for a meal ticket,” he listed off gruffly, “Dick.”

“Dick?” She raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“Dick,” he nodded. “He is positive I need to find a significant other. But, see, here’s the genius of the plan, if I have one already, he’ll stop trying to set me up with every single, roughly our age, mildly-attractive-in-Dick’s-eyes person he sees.”

“Just to be clear, you think pretending you have a girlfriend that Dick didn’t know about will get Dick to pester you _less_ ,” she deadpanned. “I’m still looking for the genius part of this plan.”

Jason opened his mouth then closed it quickly. She wasn’t wrong, but that wasn’t the point. Stupid logic. “Come on, don’t make me go to this thing alone. It’s going to be miserable and boring and annoying and it would be at least tolerable if you were there with me.”

“Wow you are selling it so well. When you put it that way, how could I resist such an amazing offer?” she scoffed and rolled her eyes taking a sip of her coffee. “Also, ‘tolerable’? When did you turn into Damian?”

This wasn’t working. He needed a different tactic, one he knew worked on her every time, “Please?” he ~~begged~~ asked in a very manly way, giving her the biggest puppy dog eyes he could manage. 

Marinette looked at the puppy dog eyes warily. She could already feel herself giving in. Damn beautiful, gorgeous, big blue eyes she could get lost in. He knew she couldn’t resist his eyes. She needed to think of something quick or she was going to lose her dignity and pretend to date someone she really did want to date and she was not some fucking fanfic trope, even if it was one of her favorites. One of Jason’s favorites, too, if she remembered correctly. Even if it would be fun to “have to” spend even more time together, close together, touching and making out endlessly in order to sell the story. 

Wait, she had a point… Right! She was not going to let her real life succumb to her and Jason’s favorite trope…

Jason’s favorite.

What. The. Fuck. That scruffy-looking, fic-loving, nerd-rat. He was playing her… but only if he liked her. So… he liked her? What!? When did that start!? Why weren’t they already dating!? He was sitting there playing games instead of kissing her! Bastard. He needed to stop playing games and act. They could be kissing right now!!

Okay, so maybe he hadn’t asked directly because he was afraid of how she would react. He wanted to keep their friendship and his dignity intact no matter what. Aww, well now she loved him even more. Still a nerd-rat but an adorable one. This was going to take tact and finesse to keep the fine balance.

“Jason, if you want to ask me out, ask me, you coward.” There. That was all the finesse she could muster for the game playing, nerd-rat.

Jason stared at her mouth agape. Shit. This was not how this conversation was supposed to go. She was supposed to agree to go with him to the gala. He was supposed to show up wearing a dashing tux that would make her blush deep red and render her speechless. She was supposed to wear a beautiful dress that took his breath away and made his jaw drop, so any dress really, or anything… or nothing. No wait. That wasn’t a fantasy he had time to indulge in right now. If he started down that road…. What was he thinking about before? Oh right. “What?” He gurgled out. Eloquent. He knew words.

“We’ve both read enough fake dating fics to know how you think this ends.” She looked at him with narrowed eyes.

Jason considered his options for response and still keep his self-respect. He was Red Hood. He took down mob bosses, hell he was one for a long time. He could handle this little soft-hearted pixie. Surely. 

His knee-jerk response to any situation was his patented emotional detachment. He didn’t care, not about this, not about her. But that wouldn’t work with Marinette, especially if he wanted to get a date out of this. She knew he cared. Maybe she didn’t know how much he ~~loved~~ CARED! cared about her, but she knew the detachment was a mask. She’d certainly called him out on it enough.

He could play dumb. He was good at that. Damian always leapt at the chance to believe he was an idiot. Mari knew him better though and always trusted his insights into any situation because she trusted that he knew what he was talking about. She knew he was smarter than he liked people to think. She treated him like he was brilliant. Even if it wasn’t the same way Tim or Barbara were, he still had as much to contribute, as much value. She completely trusted him, even when she shouldn’t, giving him those eyes that melted him into a puddle. So that was out.

He could try to play her, a corollary of the Play Dumb approach, playing off of her weaknesses; her refusal to back down from a challenge, her anxiety, her willingness to believe the best in everyone, her need to help everyone around her, her soft heart, her creativity, her kindness, her intelligence, her wit, her bravery, her beauty, her… wait… what was… WEAKNESSES! Right. He’d already used his puppy dog eyes though. He could pull them out again and it might work, but... Fuck it. The direct approach then. Just be straight forward with her, sincere.

“What are you talking about?” Sincerity is vastly overrated.

She stared at him, mouth set in a thin line. He was still playing games. Fine. He wanted to play games? She could play, too. And just like every game she played with him, she would destroy him.

“I don't know... I’m thinking about becoming a roommate with Roy and…” she gasped placing her hands on her cheeks, eyes and mouth wide open in shock. “…there might only be one bed,”

“The fuck you are,” Jason growled out under his breath before he could stop himself. He noticed the victorious grin and light blush that appeared on Marinette’s face at his outburst before she schooled her face again. He narrowed her eyes back at her. She was playing with him. She wasn’t walking away and she wasn’t saying ‘no’. That meant… she was interested too, right? She was interested and flirting with him. A small smirk spread across his face before he schooled his expression as well. Flirting he could do. “You better be careful or you might make me into an enemy, then when I get hurt I’ll have to come to you for comfort.”

Marinette drew in a breath “enemies to lovers, 10,000 word slow burn” she whispered in mock scandal nodding her head.

He chuckled at her and looked back into her eyes, “you didn’t say no, you know”.

“No” she said leaning back.

He stared at her for a second, his heart stumbling. Had he read this wrong?

“I will not fake date you. If you want a date, you can ask for one.” 

She started to get up but Jason grabbed her hand gently “Will you go on a date with me, secret princess Marinette?” He said looking at her with soft eyes, smiling at her as a shy smile spread across her face.

“Yes, of course I will. I could never deny my soulmate.” She smiled wider. “But…” She paused hesitantly. 

“But?” He asked nerves suddenly surfacing.

“But, where will we go? We’re already in a coffee shop…” she threw him a devastatingly wicked smile.

He groaned. This was his life now. He was never going to live this down. 

**Bonus:**

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” He held her hand as they walked out of the coffee shop, reveling in finally being able to touch her for more than a few seconds at a time. He could feel her warm skin whenever he wanted.

“One thing though,” she started as they left the coffee shop.

He groaned again and threw his head back in mock exasperation, “Oh God, what? You worried about your found family?”

“Oooo, that’s a good one, but no. I was thinking,” she said suddenly a bit bashful, “that we don’t want anyone to suspect that we are just pretending to be dating, right?”

He eyed her suspiciously, “Right… because we’re not.”

“Right, but we don’t want Dick to keep pushing, so we want to make sure we look completely comfortable with each other, right?”

A happy grin spread across his face as he caught onto where she was going with this, “right, so we should maybe practice. Things like being close to each other, holding hands, hugging, touching, kissing…”

“Exactly,” she nodded, looking up at him through her eyelashes. “Just to make sure we completely convince Dick we are completely in love… so there’s no question.”

His hands cupped her cheeks as he stared into her eyes, “and I am” he whispered, lowering his head down to gently touch his lips to hers.

**Slightly dirtier bonus:**

“Oh God,” he said with sudden realization breaking the kiss.

“What?” Marinette asked concern edging into her expression.

“Am I the Alpha or the Omega in this relationship?”

She let out a loud laugh, wound her arms around his neck, and pulled him down for another more searing kiss. “Who said you had to choose? We can always switch.”


End file.
